Pristina Airport is expected to handle two million passengers this year, with a number of carriers announcing new route launches to the city, as well as frequency and capacity upgrades. Spokeswoman Valenina Gara said the airport's priority is to continue attracting low cost airlines in order to facilitate low fares on the market. Despite its ongoing rivalry with nearby Skopje Airport, as well as growing competition from Niš, Pristina Airport has so far this year secured new flights from Eurowings, Germania, Orange2Fly and Electra Airways. The latter will introduce a number of services from the Kosovan city at the start of the 2018 summer season on behalf of tour operator Germany Airlines. Its 180-seat Airbus A320 aircraft will be deployed on Pristina's busiest routes including Basel, Dusseldorf and Stuttgart. Tickets are already on sale through the tour operator’s website. Electra Airways was founded in 2016 and started off as a consultancy firm in the aviation industry. In August 2017 it commenced charter operations.
Pristina Airport handled a record 1.885.186 passengers in 2017, representing an increase of 8.1% on the year before. It registered a total of 7.508 aircraft movements, up 3.5% on 2016, and processed 1.2 million tons of cargo. Germania, which has already announced the launch of two new routes from Pristina this year (Paris and Copenhagen), was the airport's busiest airline, carrying 294.633 travellers. Once figures from its Germania Flug partner are added, the number increases to 411.100. A Germania spokesman noted that new flights are being introduced from Pristina this year as a result of strong demand. On the other hand, easyJet was the second busiest airline last year, followed by Edelweiss, Adria Airways and Turkish Airlines. Croatia Airlines, as the only other carrier from the former Yugoslavia to maintain services to the Pristina, handled 4.820 travellers.
BUSIEST AIRLINES AT PRISTINA AIRPORT IN 2017
| Airline | PAX |
|---|---|
| Germania | 294.633 |
| easyJet | 255.940 |
| Edelweiss | 211.810 |
| Adria Airways | 177.166 |
| Turkish Airlines | 144.040 |
| Eurowings | 131.889 |
| Germania Flug | 116.467 |
| Pegasus Airlines | 108.910 |
| Austrian | 97.118 |
| Orange2Fly | 52.591 |
Over the past year, Zurich solidified its position as the busiest route to and from Pristina, accounting for 17.6% of all passenger traffic. It was followed by Basel at 12.7%, Dusseldorf at 8.8%, Istanbul at 7.3%, Geneva at 7% and Stuttgart with a 5.8% share. Ljubljana served as the point of arrival or departure for 2.7% of all travellers at Pristina Airport. Overall, Switzerland was the largest country market for Pristina's passengers with a 37.3% share, followed by Germany at 28.8%, Turkey at 16.4%, Austria at 5.2% and Slovenia with a 2.7% market share.
Congrats Pristina. Solid result for an which has so many limitations. Good work.
ReplyDeleteWanted to write *for an airport which has so many limitations. Sorry for the typo.
DeleteOnce EU visas are lifted, whenever that may be numbers should improve even more.
DeleteAgree really impressive annual numbers since Kosovo doesn't have visa liberalisation.
DeleteGiven the political and economic climate I doubt visas will be lifted any time soon.
DeleteThe most exotic list of airlines.
ReplyDeleteWho is Orange2Fly?
They are an ACMI Greek airline owned by former employees of Sky Greece airlines which used to fly Toronto-Zagreb. They introduced flights from Pristina to a couple of cities last year.
Deletehttp://www.exyuaviation.com/2017/03/orange2fly-to-begin-pristina-flights.html
DeleteThanks :) interesting airline.
DeleteWell it seems to have been more successful than SkyGreece.
DeleteYes, the Canadian investors of SkyGreece who had zero airline experience are out and managers I believe with experience in the field set up this airline.
DeleteWhere else do they fly, other than from PRN?
DeleteWell, according to their webpage (http://www.orange2fly.com/) they fly in various places of Europe, Middle East and North Africa, all as a charter and ACMI operator.
DeleteI think diaspora focused travel agencies are their main contractors.
Do they fly from PRN only during the summer or winter too?
DeleteGermania Flug AG is not a subsidary of Germania (Fluggeschellschaft) but it’s sister company, belonging to the same holding.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that Germania handles so many passengers in Pristina and also has some passengers in Macedonia but mostly ignores the rest of ex-Yu.
ReplyDeleteThey tried in Nish and failed.
DeleteWell they went head to head against Swiss on a small market so no surprise.
DeleteTheir flights from PRN, OHD and SKP are mostly sold and chartered by Alabanian tour agents. This year is the first time that they are selling some tickets from Pristina on their own, to CDG and CPH.
DeleteDo they have a plane based in PRN?
DeleteYes I think 1 during the summer.
DeleteI don't think the market between INI and Switzerland is small, it's just underdeveloppd. LX is doing a nice job at developing it.
Deletethey don't have any airplane based in Pristina - they used W flights ...
DeleteGermania does have some seasonal flights to Croatia but it is true they are rather limited in the region. The issue is that bigger players serve ex-Yu - Germany/Swiss market quite well and extensively.
DeleteThey should reach 2 million easily this year.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me like another market where Adria was in prime position but let it slip through its fingers. 177,000 passengers for an airline that has a base in PRN is not much.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteAdria is now mainly focusing on LJU which I think is a good thing. The real golden opportunity they missed years ago was Macedonia.
DeleteExcellent distribution of passengers to Airlines. Very healthy market share indeed. Hope WizzAir adds more flights from PRN and makes it in the top 10 this year!
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that LCCs are doing much better than legacies.
DeleteI think it's natural, because they continue to ripp off the Balkans with astronomic prices!
ReplyDeleteWhy would I pay 600 euros to Austrian Airlines from Pristina to Vienna, when I can fly Wizz to Budapest, oftentime for euros return!
Austrian Airlines is one of the most overrated, overly-priced airlines in Europe and beyond.
DeleteDefinitely. But mostly because of their legacy and the good reputation they used to have.
DeleteThose passenger numbers by destinations only goes to show that primary growth at PRN is not local demand but gasterbajter one.
ReplyDeleteIn the future if Kosovo and Methohija's economy improves this might change.
It is true that demand is Gasterbaiter driven (as seen from the destinations served) but that is the case at many ex-Yu airports.
DeleteTrue but never to such degree. Another extreme in my opinion is ZAG whose expansion to many gasterbajter destinations was limited by the LH Cartel. How long did it take to get a flight to DUS? How badly is ARN served? CPH only got some love in recent months.
DeleteI guess that incentive scheme to stimulate airlines paid off.
ReplyDeletePristina needs Wizz to Bratislava and Eindhoven.
ReplyDeleteOr even better - Vienna! give Austrian an absolute run for their money.
DeleteThere are still a lot of unserved destinations from PRN with good potential.
Delete+100
DeleteA direct flight to Bratislava (or now Vienna), would be most lucrative destination for Wizz Air out of PRN).
Transavia would also be great if they entered the market. Lots of kosovo people in NL, Belgium and German borderline (Essen, Koln)
I also think there is potential for Dortmund, Memmingen and Malmo
DeleteGood result for PRN.
ReplyDeleteI have never seen such vast usage of tour operators organizing and chartering flights on other markets as they do in Kosovo. Any particular reason for this?
ReplyDelete1.they have big influence (lobby) in PRN
Delete2.gastarbajters rely mostly on travel agencies ... not so familiar with internet yet
Makes sense. Thank you
DeleteIf PRN wants to regain its original 3rd position among exYu airports, it needs to reduce its fees. Otherwise well done. If all goes well, this year may bring PRN 2 mln.
ReplyDeleteIt introduced nice incentives. And I think it's working like I said above and these figures prove it.
DeleteFees are high because of the ludicrous concession agreement between Limak and the government. Basically under the agreement it is the government not Limak that sets the fees. And of course the idiots in government could not care less if the fees are high. The reason PRN introduced all these incentives is because it was the only way to bypass the fees which they have no control over.
DeleteThird place? Like taking over Split? Hahahahaha, yeah, sure!
DeleteYes, why not? When visas are abolished or a LCC opens a base in PRN numbers will grow quickly. It was third just 3 years ago.
DeleteBe realistic. Split will be around 3 mil. this year, and Priština is about to cross 2 mil. mark. Even if the visa regime will be abolished, which I doubt any time soon, why do you think people would start flocking in such extreme numbers to Priština?
DeleteGood news for Pristina. When will they start that long announced runway extension?
ReplyDeleteIt depends on the government. PRN Airport has done its job regarding it but the government has to approve it. It will take 18 months to complete work once they start.
DeleteGreat numbers PRN! According to me it's a pitty why Kosovo doesn't have a national airline. Cash cow markets are quite concentrated which makes picking up destinations and securing pax an easy task.
ReplyDeleteHowever my personal opinnion is that they would lose the battle with SKP this year.
On the other hand as far as the discussion goes about overpriced Austrian, there is a reason. Unlike Air Serbia or Adria they don't put on sale destinations for which they do not have an aircraft. That is what makes OS different. When evrything is fine then you don't see the difference but otherwise this is why they have a better brand.
There were a few attempts to establish a national airline. They all failed. Problem was that mostly they were set by criminals who were hoping to launder some money through an airline business. I don't think anyone has that kind of capital to set up an airline in Pristina. Except maybe a foreign airline but I doubt that will happen anytime soon.
DeleteOT: new airport road system was opened yday at/around LJU Brnik airport. It includes round abouts, bike path and is fully lighted
ReplyDeleteWhy does Croatia Airlines fly only seasonally to Pristina. It used to be a year-round route? Is demand that low? Couldn't they have used this route to feed their West Europe flights?
ReplyDeleteRoute was struggling for years, even though it was scheduled to link onto the morning wave.
Delete@ anon 4.55 Croatia Airlines does not fly to Pristina at all, not even seasonally anymore.
DeleteOh you are right. Didn't realize.
Delete1.2 tons of cargo? Or should it read 1.2 million of cargo?
ReplyDelete